NEW YORK, July 21, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the launch of two sector indexes for Israel – the Dow Jones Israel Select Consumer Index and the Dow Jones Israel Select Oil & Gas Index – which it has licensed to KSM, a leading index product manager in Israel.
Part of the Excellence Nessuah group, KSM will be adding the KSM Dow Jones Consumer Index ETF and the KSM Dow Jones Energy Index ETF to its expanded family of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which collectively have AUM totaling $5.5 billion as of June 30, 2011. Both of the new KSM ETFs began trading today on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
"The licensing of these two new indexes is indicative of growing interest among Israeli investors in a wider array of index-based products," said Michael A. Petronella, President, Dow Jones Indexes. "These new indexes will allow investors to make more-precise investment decisions by considering the performance of individual sectors."
Dow Jones Indexes and KSM have worked together before: in 2004, KSM licensed the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average from Dow Jones Indexes to issue the KSM Dow Jones 30 – the first ETF traded in Israel.
The Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes measure the performance of a select portion of equity securities trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, categorized into sectors as defined by Dow Jones Indexes' proprietary classification system. Stocks in the index universe are screened based on specific size and liquidity criteria.
The composition of the indexes is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December. Weighting for the indexes is apportioned according to float-adjusted market capitalization, subject to a 15% weighting cap on each individual component within each sector.
The Dow Jones Israel Select Indexes was first calculated on January 31, 2011. Real index history is available daily from this date forward. Back-tested historical data have been calculated daily back to January 1, 2007, the date at which the index base value is set at 1000.
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About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes (www.djindexes.com) is a leading full-service index provider that develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best-known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes offers more than 130,000 equity indexes as well as fixed-income and alternative indexes, including measures of hedge funds, commodities and real estate. Dow Jones Indexes employs clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. Dow Jones Indexes is the marketing name for CME Group Index Services LLC, a joint venture company which is owned 90 percent by CME Group Inc. (www.cmegroup.com) and 10 percent by Dow Jones & Co., Inc. (www.dowjones.com), a News Corp. company (Nasdaq:NWS), (Nasdaq:NWSA); (ASX:NWS), (ASX:NWSLV); (www.newscorp.com).
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The Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes are a product of Dow Jones Indexes, the marketing name and a licensed trademark of CME Group Index Services LLC ("CME Indexes"). "Dow Jones®", "Dow Jones Indexes", "Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes", "Dow Jones Industrial Average" and all other index names listed above are service marks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones"), and have been licensed for use by CME Indexes. Investment products based on Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Dow Jones, CME Indexes or their respective affiliates and none of Dow Jones, CME Indexes and their respective affiliates make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. Inclusion of a company in any of the Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes does not in any way reflect an opinion of Dow Jones, CME Indexes or any of their respective affiliates on the investment merits of such company. None of Dow Jones, CME Indexes or any of their respective affiliates is providing investment advice in connection with these indexes.
The Dow Jones Israel Select Sector Indexes were first published on January 31, 2011. All estimated daily historical closing prices prior to that date are based on back-testing (i.e., calculations of how the index might have performed in the past if it had existed). Backtested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. Backtested performance does not represent actual performance, and past performance is not indicative of future results.